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Emploi et formation : NTIC et accessibilité
Colloque 2000: Government
ISSUES
The role of the state
The role of the state is undeniable and essential in supporting the minority of people with more serious impairments and for whom the laws of the market cannot apply. The role of the state consists in:
- Providing training support;
- Supporting industry: providing incentives and financial support when the laws of the market do not apply;
- Assisting with the development of adaptive products for the regular market;
- Lobbying: highlighting facts and statistics to prove the social costs of not investing in the development of adaptive products;
- Being a regulator: for instance, developing incentive programs;
- Being a subsidizer: compensating that which cannot be developed by the private sector.
The importance of government standards to ensure universal accessibility to NICTs
- Adaptive products, like standard products, must have a universal design concept whose goal is to increase personal autonomy. The government must establish includements, so that all products meet the needs of the various populations, and negotiate contractual agreements with manufacturers when awarding grants to ensure greater product accessibility for people with disabilities. Standards should be proposed to government by the companies themselves, given the considerable influence of market laws and innovation. These includements or standards should also:
- Be officially adopted;
- Involve people with disabilities in the process from the outset;
- Be respected in all areas of activity, regardless of the type of product being manufactured (access to Web sites, CD-ROMS, software, etc.). It should be noted that in the case of Web sites, international standards have been developed which reflect the various disabilities.
Adopting the appropriate legislative framework
- Canada and Quebec must adopt a law like the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States) to oblige designers, and in particular those who receive grants to develop adaptive products, to make their products accessible to a greater number of people with disabilities. The ADA, which is well known and cannot be circumvented by companies, is a major equal access program. In Quebec, this role could be assumed by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (section on equal access programs for employment, health and social services and all other services commonly offered to the public). Quebec therefore currently has the tools to ensure that the rights of people with disabilities are respected. However, because of the Loi assurant l'exercice des droits des personnes handicapées - Loi 9 (Act ensuring the rights of people with disabilities), these individuals do not have access to the equal access programs covered by the Charter.
The need for more logic and more
consequence on the part of government to ensure compliance with laws and regulations
- Ensure that current laws and regulations concerning people with disabilities are applied, in particular with respect to employment and training. The government must assume full responsibility for managing their application.
Technical assistance programs
- Insufficient assistance is available for programs. Moreover, there are problems with continuity:
- Little or no recognition or agreement among the various programs (Régie de l'assurance-maladie du Québec, or RAMQ, and Emploi-Québec);
- Assistance programs governed by restrictive standards which exclude people with disabilities;
- Assistance used to subsidize the purchase of equipment, but which does not allow the equipment to be updated.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
- Ensure that the state plays its role and fully assumes its responsibilities with respect to integrating people with disabilities.
- Establish standards to allow greater accessibility to NICTs by people with disabilities.
- Reinforce coercive and incentive measures.
- Beef up legislation on people with disabilities to ensure that it can be respected by all.
- Sensitize, inform and encourage partnerships between designers of CD-ROMS and software developed in Quebec and people with disabilities.
- Extend access to financial assistance for NICTs to people with disabilities who are not employed, not engaged in a process to enter the workforce, nor at school.
- Relax program and grant rules to allow greater flexibility and adaptation to each case.
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Nouvelles technologies et accessibilité
La Commission des partenaires du marché du travail contribue au financement des activités du
Comité d'adaptation de la main-d'oeuvre (CAMO) pour personnes handicapées.
Pour plus de renseignements sur le marché du travail et sur les programmes et services publics d'emploi, consultez le site d'Emploi-Québec.
